Blog Challenge - Week 7

Building your e-mail list

I've been told, and I believe it to be true, that your e-mail list is a vital part of reaching out to your audience and engaging them in what you are up to. Last week, I learned about sending a good newsletter (which I then did. I hope it was a good one. I included a great recipe for yummy hummus.)

This week's chapter is all about building your e-mail list. It's interesting, because when I read the title for the chapter, I thought.....ya, I do this already. I bring a sign-up sheet to my gigs...I've offered a free download to anybody that signs up, and it's prominently displayed on my website, FB, etc. BUT, there's more you can do!

Step 1 is mining through the people you know/people you converse with over e-mail/anyone really and asking them if you can add them to your e-mail list. I sometimes shy away from forward actions like this, but I think I'm gonna do it! It's important for me to try and promote (without being obnoxious...)

Another interesting idea is putting time aside to work on building the mailing list. Again, I thought this was something that could only happen when I had gigs. I'm going to put some time aside, and see what I can get done.

Another interesting idea is getting people to sign up for the list at gigs by offering a prize (free CD?!?) I'm definitely gonna try this at my next gig. I think this can work for sure!

Again, I thought I had this covered, but I've realized there's so much more I can do! So, instead of writing about it, I'm gonna do it.

Wanna be on my e-mail list? Go to www.ernestocervini.com and sign up! You'll get a free download of my NYC jazz trio MEM3 performing live in Edmonton, AB

Blog Challenge - Week 6

So, I'm still a little behind, but I'm doing my best to catch up....

This weeks chapter is about e-mail newsletters.

I've recently started focusing on sending out better e-mails, and building an e-mail list. In fact, one of the goals I set in week 1 was getting 500 names on my e-mail list. Right now, I'm at 418. If you're reading this, and you're not on my e-mail list, please go sign up! You can get a free download of my quartet live in action...

The chapter focuses on not just e-mailing people to say "HERE'S WHAT I'M UP TO, HERE'S WHAT I'M UP TO , BUY MY STUFF, COME TO MY CONCERTS!!!" We need to remember that at the end of the day people are always looking out for #1. So, these e-mails should offer some sort of nuggets of info, and other things to engage people.

Newsletters should have 3 parts...
Greeting (hello, it's me, I'm here)
Guts (the reason for the newsletter ie. I'm on tour, these are the gigs....)
Getting

Getting is the interesting one to me. That's where you engage the reader. Offer something unexpected, like recommending a cool book, or recipe, or album you just discovered. Or give something away for free, like a new live track.

I'm looking forward to doing my December newsletter (in the next couple of days.) I have all sorts of ideas!

Blog Challenge - Week 5

Oh Dear!

It has been far too long! I've continued to read the book, "Music Success in 9 Weeks" but have been woefully behind in my blogging.

Alright, week 5 is about...Blogging! ha ha ha....oops

So, I'm not sure blogging is for me. I read a bunch of other peoples blogs, but I've tried this blogging thing a bunch of times now, and I can't really get into it. I'm doing much better at staying active on other social media outlets but (as you can see) blogging is still a bit of a struggle.

But, in the spirit of blogging, here are some great blogs I follow

Chris Donnelly
Nextbop
Peter Hum - Jazzblog.ca
Howard Berger on the Toronto Maple Leafs
Amy Cervini - Random thoughts

I will endeavor to continue blogging....the challenge continues!

Blog Challenge - Week 4

Week 4 in the book "Music Success in Nine Weeks" is all about internet social media. This chapter was available as a download immediately upon my purchase of the book, so I have had a head start. I've embraced Twitter, and Facebook. The application I haven't been able to get into is Flickr...which is funny, because I LOVE pictures. So, here's the plan. Instead of blogging any more about this, I'm going over to Flickr. I just finished a great Cross-Canada Tour with my quartet, and I have TONS of pictures.

I will update you on my progress!

Blog Challenge - Week 3

Week 3 of the blog challenge is about optimizing your website. There are six main points in the chapter.
1. Add the pitch to your website
2. Your site must load in less that 3.5 seconds
3. NO flash intros
4. Have a consistent look, name and feel all across the net
5. Give away an exclusive thing to satisfy the WIIFM (What's in it for me?)
6. Make it clear and set them at ease

So, I've been able to implement most of these things on my site, www.ernestocervini.com. I haven't added a pitch yet, as I'm still working on one. On a side note, I thought I'd be able to stay on top of all of this while I was on tour with my quartet. ha ha ha....not so!

My site does load quick, and there's no flash. I have a consistent look, and if you sign up for my mailing list, you get a free download of a live recording by my quartet.

Hooray! Week 4, here I come!

Blog Challenge - Week 2

So this week's chapter in the book "Music Success in 9 weeks" is about creating the perfect pitch. In my case, I think it would be a good idea to establish a pitch for both my quartet, and also my own playing.

Funny thing happened this morning. As you may or may not know, I'm currently on tour with my quartet, traveling across Canada. I was doing an interview this morning with a journalist in Kamloops in advance of our gig there this upcoming Saturday. The interview was going great, and towards the end, she asked me to describe my band and our music. This would have been a perfect time to unleash my "pitch." Unfortunately, as I've been on tour I've had a difficult time working on my pitch. SO, when she asked me for my description I was pretty stumped. I fell back on the..."well...we play modern jazz, mostly originals...it's a quartet." Finally I said "we are along the tradition of the Miles Davis quintet of the 60's." Suddenly, she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Now, I'm not really sure my quartet is exactly like the Miles quintet from the 60's...but it gave her (the journalist) an comparison, and she felt she had a much clearer idea of what we're about. Now, I just need to work on my pitch to make it fit the quartet a little more. Maybe something about how we swing like Miles' quintet playing original jazz compositions in the style of Dave Douglas and Kurt Rosenwinkel's bands.

Anyways, I've learned firsthand already that a pitch is a very useful tool. I'll let you know when I come up with something....I gots some work to do!

Blog Challenge - Week 1

So, I've been reading this book entitled "Music Success in Nine Weeks" by Ariel Hyatt. The book is a "Step-By-Step Guide On How to Use Social Media & Online Tactics to Supercharge Your PR, Build Your Fan Base and Earn More Money."

So, far I'm really into it. When I bought it, it came with a downloadable file which serves as a precursor to the book entitled "A Musicians Guide to Social Media Success." I dove into this right away and have been implementing many suggestions that were in the guide. First off, I stream-lined all my social media outlets (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) so that I had the same username. I also implemented a free download on my website for anybody that signs up to be on my mailing list. I've opened a Flickr account (although I've yet to really start using that) and I've become much more active on Twitter.

Week 1 of the book focuses on setting goals. I bought myself a nice notebook and wrote down some solid music, financial, business, and personal goals for the next year. I'm happy to say I've already achieved one! I had 30 fans on my Quartet's Facebook page and I set a goal of getting 75 fans. I now have 160 fans and counting! I'm pretty sure that has no tangible meaning, but I set a goal and I achieved it. I've realized a more useful goal (rather than FB fans) is names on my mailing list because I can reach out and contact these people on a more real and direct level. My goal is 500 names on my mailing list. That'll be a pretty tall order, but I'm going on tour this Friday for 2 weeks with the quartet, so I'll be hoping to get some names and e-mail addresses from each stop along the way.

The next post will be from Edmonton. You can keep up with the quartet on my travel blog!